Here I was, minding my own business, and suddenly fall happened. Or, more accurately, a string of tropical storms has turned the East Coast into a limp, soggy mess. Either way, my gardens are protesting—summer’s definitely over. But yet I feel like I’ve just gotten started on filling up the freezer for winter. The good […]

Last weekend I pulled up the carrots I had left to overwinter at my community garden. The boards on the raised bed were rotten, and my billy goat had offered to build me a new frame so I could put in my spring seeds. While I was grateful, that meant that I had to rip […]

The October CanJam focused on peppers. Though I thought about doing jars and jars of pickled peppers (and in fact put up one basic jar Monday night, following Marisa’s instructions over at Food in Jars), I wanted something more interesting. More creative. More original.

My grandmother used to make and sell the most astonishing hot pepper relish. This isn’t that recipe—some family secrets are meant to be kept—but it’s almost as good. It has a proven track record in winning over zucchini doubters, relish doubters, and hot pickle doubters. It’s also an excellent use for leftover, end-of-season yellow squash […]

Has anyone else noticed the skyrocketing cost of pine nuts, when you can find them at all? The going rate in Philadelphia seems to be somewhere around $25/pound. I think I’m not the only one with this problem—I noticed that the pesto at my local “boutique” grocery is made from pecans, not pine nuts.

The July Can Jam stumped me. It wasn’t so much the trans-Atlantic translation problem of “marrows” as the fact that my favorite pickle, a just barely tangy half sour, isn’t acidic enough to can. Then I found a jar of cornichons in my basement (Linda Zeidrich’s recipe, of course). I’m usually fairly diligent about labeling […]

Last summer, my friend Alex gave me a packet of kohlrabi seeds that she had purchased on a recent visit with her family in Switzerland. The instructions were in German, but I thought I could figure out what I needed to know: you plant them in early […]

Based on your recent Google searches, I gather that I am not the only one drowning in beet greens, turnip greens, collar greens, chard, and kale. Earlier this week I went out to my garden and cut about 5 pounds of kale, turnip greens, and beet greens. This seemed like a manageable project. That’s when […]

Here in Philadelphia, summer seems to have come early. Most of my favorite New Jersey U-picks (which they insist on calling “Pick Your Own”) have opened, and the deluge of fruit has begun. Last weekend’s haul included 15 pounds of strawberries and about 20 pounds of sweet cherries. Sour cherries should be ready in a […]

It’s been a veritable beetfest over here at goat central. We’ve been shredding them, pickling them, and pressure canning them. And, very importantly, teaching other people how to do these things, too. I love a good beet salad in season—one of my favorites follows below—but […]